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Social justice

Maryknoll missioners around the world feel the impact of social injustice and see its effects in the communities were they live and work. Flowing from their ministries of presence and accompaniment, as well as from the concrete programs and projects in which Maryknollers participate, we engage in the hard work of identifying root causes of social and economic injustice. With a particular focus on the geographical regions where Maryknoll is present, as well as on structural or systemic injustice affecting women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees and people with HIV and AIDS, we join with others of like mind to identify potential pathways to social transformation and to move our world in that direction.

With great concern for the state of the U.S. democracy, eleven national and international Catholic social justice organizations sent the following statement to Congress on the occassion of Martin Luther King Day.

On November 20, 14 Catholic organizations, including the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, sent a statement to members of Congress regarding the Syrian refugee crisis and the need to welcome Syrian refugees.

Maryknoll recognizes the great importance of the publication of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the use of torture, which details terrible acts of horrific brutality.

A human rights organization co-founded by Maryknoll Sister Patricia Ryan has won the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for 2018 for its work with indigenous communities in Peru. The following speech was delivered by Sister Ryan and her colleagues Cristobal Yugra and Yolanda Flores at the award ceremony sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. on October 4, 2018.

Maryknoll Sister Marie Leonor Montiel, director of a program that helps people affected by HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, writes about the recent general election in which the party of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, says it won a landslide victory.

In the first election in Zimbabwe since long-time leader Robert Mugabe was ousted from power, the ruling ZANU-PF party has managed to hold onto control of the presidency and Parliament. But society remains fractured.

Sister Marvie L. Misolas, MM, NGO Representative to the UN for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, writes about the recent review of six of the 17 sustainable development goals at the United Nations.

Catherine “Kitty” Madden reports on the crisis in Nicaragua. Madden has lived and worked in Nicaragua since 1986, some of that time as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner and many years as a Maryknoll Affiliate.

UN member states are scheduled to hold their last round of negotiations for the Global Compact for Migration July 9-13 with the goal of producing a final draft document for adoption at the International Migration Conference in Morocco in December.

Since early May, Maryknoll missioners along the U.S.-Mexico border and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns in Washington, D.C. have taken action to end family separation and protect the rights of asylum seekers.

This is the second in a series of articles designed to educate Catholic organizations about ways to participate in the fastest growing divestment campaign in human history - the fossil fuel divestment movement.